The timing of puberty has different effects for boys and girls. Describe research findings concerning the effects of early and late puberty for both sexes.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Many factors, including diet, health, body type, weight, and racial background, affect the timing of puberty. Heredity also plays a role because daughters often go through puberty at about the same age their mothers did (Ersoy, Balkan, Gunay, & Egemen, 2005). There also are some consistent racial and ethnic differences for both boys and girls. On average African American girls and boys mature earlier than Hispanic children who develop earlier than White children (Herman-Giddens, 2013). Girls from families with more social and economic resources reach menarche 3 months to 3 years before girls from disadvantaged families, perhaps because of better diet and better overall health in more well-to-do families (Parent et al., 2003).

Because the physical changes of puberty have such a profound effect on how the young person is seen by others, undergoing these changes relatively earlier-or considerably later-than age-mates can have a significant impact on development. Early maturing boys tend to have a positive self-image and feel good about themselves in a number of ways, including being more self-confident and seeing themselves as independent. Because boys who mature earlier are taller and heavier than their peers in early adolescence, they are more likely to be athletes and this gives them a lot of status in the peer group (Hyde & Gengenbach, 2007). However, early maturing boys tend to spend their time with older peers because their physical development is a better match with that of older adolescents, and this can expose them to behaviors they are not ready to handle (Goldstein, 2011; Mendle, Turkheimer, & Emery, 2007). For instance, they are also more likely than their on-time peers to begin using drugs and/or alcohol (Faden, Ruffin, Newes-Adeyi, & Chen, 2010; Westling, Andrews, Hampson, & Peterson, 2008). These risks are even greater for early-maturing adolescents growing up in disadvantaged neighborhoods or with parents who are harsh or inconsistent in their discipline (Ge, Brody, Conger, Simons, & Murry, 2002). It has been easy to think that the relative psychological immaturity of early maturers or their association with older peers is responsible for the problematic behaviors we see. However, it is possible that it is child characteristics that existed before the onset of puberty that is responsible for the chance of a young person engaging in risky behaviors. In support of this idea there is evidence from longitudinal research that boys who experience early puberty also had greater behavioral difficulties and poorer psychosocial adjustment earlier in their childhood (Mensah et al., 2013).
Late-maturing boys, on the other hand, have a more negative self-concept and are more likely to feel inadequate and rejected. Consequently, they may suffer from depression (Kaltiala-Heino, Kosunen, & Rimpela, 2003) or engage in alcohol or substance use as a way of compensating for their low social status (Weichold, Silbereisen, & Schmitt-Rodermund, 2003).
When a girl physically matures earlier than the other girls her age, it sets her apart and isolates her from them. It might even inspire a bit of jealousy or envy (Reynolds & Juvonen, 2011). Attention from boys (especially older boys) can make them targets of peer rumors and gossip (Reynolds & Juvonen, 2011). Early maturing girls also tend to experience more anxiety in social situations because of their increased self-consciousness (Blumenthal et al., 2011). And because girls physically mature on average about 2 years before boys do, most boys the same age may be intimidated by a girl who is becoming a woman in front of their eyes (Reynolds & Juvonen, 2011).
Similar to what we saw with early maturing boys, this social isolation from age-mates might drive the early-maturing girl to spend time with older adolescents (Weichold et al., 2003). A physically mature but chronologically young adolescent girl may be particularly susceptible to peer pressure to drink, smoke, or be sexually active because she does not yet have the cognitive maturity to know whether, when, and how to say no-and to stick to it (Weichold et al., 2003).
It is girls who mature at the same time as their age-mates who appear to have the advantage. They fit in comfortably with girls their own age and also with most of the boys, and they find support from a peer group that is dealing with the same issues and concerns they have. Girls who mature slightly later than average do not gain weight when their early-developing peers do so they remain relatively thin, which fits well with the cultural stereotype of what an attractive young woman should look like. Consequently, these girls tend to have positive body images (Mendle et al., 2007).
The good news regarding pubertal timing is that by the end of high school, almost all adolescents have undergone the physical changes of puberty, and a distinction between early and late maturers no longer has much meaning (Natsuaki et al., 2009). Unless the differences in timing of physical maturation have been responsible for other risky behaviors that become problematic in and of themselves (Copeland et al., 2010; van Jaarsveld, Fidler, Simon, & Wardle, 2007), adolescents are again on a pretty level playing field in this regard.